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Salmond fires warning shot with bitter outburst at BBC

Lindsay McIntosh

March 30 2015, 1:01am, The Times

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES GLOSSOP FOR THE TIMES Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, embraces its former leader Alex Salmond after she closing the party's conference in Glasgow, Scotland. 29-03-2015Times Newspapers Ltd

Alex Salmond demanded yesterday that Holyrood be given powers over broadcasting after lambasting the “biased” BBC for its coverage of the independence referendum.

The former first minister launched a vicious attack on the state broadcaster to a captivated audience at the SNP conference. The move will be interpreted as a warning shot across the bows of the BBC not to squeeze the Scottish Nationalists out of the election coverage.

He made the comments in an unscheduled question-and-answer session to promote his referendum diaries, The Dream Shall Never Die, in which he also attacked the “metropolitan” press for its treatment of the campaign.

He told the crowd of thousands who had given him a standing ovation and demanded that he move from the side of the…